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The Importance of Being Honest as an SEO

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White Hat SEO

Can we agree there are enough shady characters in the SEO world? The SEO community seems to have taken the phrase “No News is Good News” to mean that one can’t get anywhere in SEO without going to the dark side.

Protect your customer’s reputation

It seems every story sent across my desk about SEO has to do with a disgruntled former client or a company all too happy to ruin their customer’s reputation with black hat tactics. The ones that come to mind fastest are the NY Times articles about JC Penny or the New York sunglasses salesman using scorchingly negative reviews to generate links to his website. JC Penny was ranking ahead of Bed Bath and Beyond for bed and bathroom supplies. The sunglass salesman was ranking ahead of sites like Oakley and Ray-ban.

White hats understand that this shouldn’t be the case, especially if the main factors of Google’s algorithm, relevance and importance, are worth a damn. Of course, the reason stories like these are in the news is because black hats and shady dealings are being exposed and will almost certainly be dealt with. Because when black hats are caught and make the clients look bad, it also reflects poorly on search engines.

In many of these cases, the client, regardless of their involvement in an SEO scandal, claims they paid the agency to get them to rank but were not kept in the loop regarding the particulars. This doesn’t surprise me from a black hat firm. Or even a white hat firm actually. I have spoken with many good-guy SEO’s who try to limit their client’s knowledge about what it is they do, whether successful or not. Most say the client doesn’t care or want to learn, which is why they hired a firm. And others say the process can be too complicated to explain to a client not in the internet field.

You need to be a good teacher

If you are an SEO worth your salt, you need to be a good teacher. Walk your clients through the process in layman’s terms as best you can if they aren’t all that tech savvy. If they don’t want to know, at least they will have the comfort of thinking that you know your stuff. This will make them feel better about coming to you with questions. Or better yet, they’ll refer you to other businesses.

There are no guarantees in SEO. What works today can backfire tomorrow, what’s keeping you down could help you up in no time. However, when SEO firms use this as a shield to promise results based on vague tactics, it becomes hard to keep your hat white.

In short, your clients are paying you good money to get results, and if they ask for information regarding the results or lack thereof, give it to them. A bad scenario is that you lose the client when they don’t like your honest answers. The worst case scenario is ending up in the New York Times with a dark cloud overhead for the rest of your numbered days in the industry.

Filed Under: SEO

About

Matt Brown is the owner and founder of Evolving Interactive, a Chicago SEO firm. He has years of experience in internet marketing sales, management, and consultation. Matt is from Cincinnati, and is a die-hard Reds and Bengals fan, a runner, and loyal dog-owner.

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{ 22 Responses }

  1. Ricardus says:
    I think if you can stay away from doing the black hats technique and make it a comprehensive ones, it'll do good to your sites as well.
  2. Satrap says:
    While I agree about being honest with clients when it comes to SEO and what you can do for them, I think SEO is one of those things you can't be honest 100% (t least agree with Tobias to some extent. SEO over all is the process of not being honest. Lets take link building, it supposed to be a natural process where other people link to you because of your content, but we all build backlinks for ourselves.
    • Taylor says:
      Satrap, Thanks for your comment. From this articles perspective, the idea of honesty is in regards to your client. You're not wrong that SEO has a few tricks to it that makes the success less than completely organic. But it's a matter of telling your clients what this takes and helping them to understand. Let your clients understand that you'll be getting links on their behalf that they may not otherwise get, but that this is what helps their page strength.
    • Taylor says:
      Satrap Thanks for the comment. This article actually refers to honesty with the clients. It's true that SEO has some tricks to it. The important thing is letting the clients know what these tricks entail (speaking from a white hat perspective). The idea of getting links for your client isn't dishonest, though I see what you're saying. However, if it was a system built around genuine, organic results, we wouldn't have jobs! I'm saying to let your clients know these types of strategies you'll be implementing on their behalf.
  3. Pritam says:
    This is the case with most of the SEO companies in India. They try to fool their client by doing such practices. Many of them don't provide any technical details to their client and the client has no idea what they are doing for them. On asking what success they are getting, they provide the list of long tail keywords in which their site is ranking but no traffic comes with that long tail keywords.
    • Taylor says:
      Pritam Thanks for the comment. I've actually read about a lot of that, and had a few friends in the industry actually brag about such things. I think it's important to take pride in this work not just for ourselves but for the strength of the industry. It can be frustrating because it's sometimes difficult to provide a client with concrete success exactly when they want it. The temptation to talk in circles around the client to make them happy is there. But if we think of ourselves as a type of web architect or construction worker; you are putting the hours in building something. With patience and hard work, there will be results, and hopefully, at the end of the campaign, we can stand with the client and look at the results together.
  4. marcus says:
    so true, being honest about the work is always a good thing, we don't want our efforts to back fire on us, by doing shady things.
  5. Ming Jong Tey says:
    Hey Taylor, I absolutely agree. Honesty and integrity are the must for business, no matter what business you are into. I've seen some brutally dishonest SEO firm claiming 1st page of Google for the site because they use a super long tail keyword that no one would be searching for, yet the client don't know anything about SEO so they have totally no clue.... You might gain some advantage for being dishonest, but definitely ruin your reputation in the long run... Cheers, Ming
    • Taylor says:
      Ming Jong Tey Thanks for the comment. That long tail stuff is just wrong. I use the architect / construction worker a lot. You hire someone to build you a bridge, because you don't know how to, and they are the professional, but they do it fast and cheap. 6 months later, it looks like your bridge is done, and they tell you about all the structural blah blah blah, and you nod because they are the professional. Maybe you walk on that bridge a few times, but eventually it gives out and you are stunned. Yes, the professionals screwed you over, but maybe you didn't ask the right questions. This is why I like to give our clients the opportunities to inform themselves. In the long run, it's better for both of us.
  6. theComplex says:
    Maybe I'm rather new and therefore ignorant because I tend to tell everything a client will let me get out about what I'm doing to improve their SEO. I collect and provide stats and give updates but most of the time, the client just wants to know SOMETHING is being done. Never do they really want me to go as far into details as I'm happy to do.
    • Taylor says:
      Thanks for the comment. We are on the same page. I'm happy to shut up if the client just wants me to do my thing, but I'm also happy to answer any questions or go into detail. Preach on!
  7. Mandy Kilinskis says:
    First of all, major props for referencing Oscar Wilde in your blog title. I think the world would be a better place if we all did that. Second, I really enjoy this post. Even though "morally gray" seems to be synonymous with "SEO," protecting clients should always be a top priority.
    • Taylor says:
      Mandy There may be a gray element to it, because that's just the business. What's important is the effort to be as white hat as we can, for ourselves, our clients, and our industry. "We're all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars! " That's for you.
  8. Mark says:
    If you want to really keep things clean and sparkling-white, pretty much all you can do is write awesome articles and syndicate them. Everything else, search engines consider black hat and manipulative...link building for sure. It's all black hat in my opinion...and Google's. Mark
  9. Steve says:
    Honesty in SEO is extremely important. It is like car salesman. There are quite a few shysters out there, who promise the sun and moon and deliver nothing. By being honest and open, you may miss out on the quick and easy buck at first but over time you will build a reputation. ....and a good reputation is worth far more than a couple of quick sales. A good reputation will follow you forever and continue to provide you work. While cheap sales tactic will just mean that you have to keep scrambling and scamming forever.
  10. Tobias Stuttgart says:
    Isn't SEO the idea of not being honest? Would we need SEO if everybody was honest? Not even google is honest. It simply can't be, the algorithms would be way to difficult.
  11. Lennart Heleander says:
    Hi Tayler, First of all, must SEO done right, correct, by the book, no Black hats ect…. But trying to explain to a customer what SEO is not worth much, after 5 - 10 seconds doesn’t he understands nothing of what I explain - as much the client who may be an car mechanic who tries to explain to me what is wrong in my car engine.
    • Taylor says:
      Lennart Thanks for the comment. That is a great way of putting it. But I still like to know what's wrong with my car and what the mechanic did to fix it. I respect him more and will probably go back if the mechanic can find a way to explain it to me so that I can understand. Especially if the results are actually there and the car works just fine after (and doesn't break down 2 weeks later, which can be an analogy for black hat success)
  12. Ewan Kennedy says:
    "Honest SEO". That has to be an oxymoron, doesn't it? :-)
  13. david says:
    There are some SEO company out there use black hat technique, but the clients will finally discover it and leave them
  14. Tom says:
    You're right, SEO changes constantly. What works one day may not work the next.
  15. Raj says:
    I guess the J C Penny case and the other one about the Sunglasses were extremes and goes beyond what even a black hat SEO could do! But then, clients who demand too much sometimes deserve such exposure in New York Times!